The Driller Killer

The Driller Killer - 1979 - Directed by: Abel Ferrara

Arrow Video's upcoming release will take you back to that sleazy grimy New York that feels better than any era of the city on film. 1979's The Driller Killer takes you on an authentic experience through the struggle of the starving artist. Living in squaller, surrounded by dead beats and burn outs. The day to day of the broke and the bored is agonizing but Abel Ferrara allures you on New York itself, which keeps your eyes on the screen. You're almost an hour into the film before anyone is drilled but you've cruised through it thanks to the morose sites and the shrill sounds of the city.

This is the only film I have seen and known that gives you an inside look into Max's Kansas City, a music venue that showcased punk and other alternative rock from when it opened in 1965 till its death rattle in 1981. Over time it has played second fiddle to CBGB's, which is why I was sold on The Driller Killer five minutes in when the film put me in that sweaty grimy dance hall. 

Brett Easton Ellis took a page or two from Abel Ferrara's character Reno Miller when creating Patrick Bateman. They both enjoy using their power tools and murdering the homeless. But the homeless people we see before the killings begin in the film are in fact really homeless. A voyeur look onto the slums make for the disconcerting reality that the struggle is real. Not only is it steps outside Reno Miller's doorway, but it could also be a glimpse into his future.

Arrow Video's 4k restoration takes this 16mm grind house feature and morphs it into something that has the look of an early unseen Martin Scorsese picture. Arrow provides a brand new one on one with Abel Ferrara which proves to be my favorite special feature on the blu-ray. Its twenty plus minutes of Abel putting on his crazy foul mouthed I'm from New York face and spewing out ramblings and relics of his career leading up to and during the filming of The Driller Killer. 

If you loved looking at the New York Travis Bickle despised or you enjoyed watching the work Patrick Bateman put in at night in the streets then The Driller Killer is right up your alley.